Players set strike date

Major-league baseball players and owners are once again on course for a potentially season-ending collision of wills.

By voting Friday to set Aug. 30 as a strike date, players earning an average of almost $2.4 million are risking the coldest of winters.

Though differences over a proposed salary luxury tax and the other bargaining issues appear resolvable, the union's strike date, which was approved on a telephone conference call of player representatives, threatens a repeat of the 1994 stoppage, which left the White Sox and other winning teams with nowhere to go but home.

The resolve of owners once players walked off diamonds caused the season to end without a World Series for the only time since 1904. That same scenario is in play--with two apparent differences: There's a greater chance to avoid a strike this time and it's certain fans will be less forgiving if negotiators fail.

"The baseball owners and the baseball players must understand that if there is a stoppage, a work stoppage, a lot of fans are going to be furious," President Bush said. "And I'm one of them."

By targeting the start of the Labor Day weekend for its job action, the Major League Baseball Players Association risks having players on strike on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 acts of terror. But its biggest risk might be further alienating fans who have demonstrated their displeasure with rising ticket prices through a 5 percent drop in attendance this season.

Unlike the strikes of 1972, '81, '85 and '94-'95, empty ballparks may not be foremost in the minds of sports fans in many cities, including Chicago. Eighteen of the 30 franchises are out of the playoff picture, having fallen more than eight games behind in the standings. Sports fans won't have to look hard for an alternative because the strike date falls only six days before the NFL season opens.

Mark McGwire, the record-setting slugger who retired after last season, is among many who have said that a strike only eight years after the last 232-day ordeal could have "devastating" effects for professional baseball's future.

Yet players decided a lack of aggressive movement by owners on a proposed luxury tax, which they believe will act as a form of salary cap, justified setting a deadline.

"We need to reach an agreement, and the hope is that this will focus the attention of the parties and put us in a position to do that," MLBPA executive director Donald Fehr said. "I think an agreement can be reached if both sides remain committed to trying to do that. The players certainly are."

Negotiators are scheduled to meet again Saturday.

Following two weeks of productive negotiations between Fehr and MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred, players decided not to set a strike date at a meeting last Monday in Chicago.

After talks resumed Tuesday, Manfred was so upbeat he predicted "it's possible for us to make an agreement in the next several days." But talks broke down after Fehr reacted angrily to a counterproposal on the luxury tax Manfred delivered late Wednesday.

According to a source, another round of talks Thursday "turned ugly" as both sides dug in over their positions.

The atmosphere turned chilly after Manfred made a counterproposal that raised the threshold for a luxury tax of 50 percent from $100 million to only $102 million. Players apparently were expecting more of a compromise, but Manfred said Friday that the owners' increase was in keeping with the reluctance of the union to take big steps toward middle ground.

Fehr has proposed a 15 percent tax on all payrolls above $130 million, according to a management source.

Using the calculations that are made for luxury tax purposes, seven teams began the season with payrolls above $100 million. The New York Yankees' payroll was calculated at $164 million on Opening Day, and since has risen to $171 million.

The owners' proposed tax would cost the Yankees more than $30 million compared with $6.15 million under the players' proposal, which would not affect any other team.

The union contends a tax with a lower threshold could prompt the Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and other high-revenue teams to curb spending on salaries. Owners counter that other teams would spend more if they had a greater chance of winning.

Owners have proposed a minimum payroll, which would force the weakest franchises to increase spending. The union opposes a minimum payroll.

Fehr criticized the owners' proposal of a $45 million minimum as insignificant because it would have affected only the Tampa Bay Devil Rays this season. Manfred applied that reasoning to the players' luxury tax proposal, asking how it could be significant if it only would affect one team, the Yankees.

Players have categorized the luxury tax as a salary cap, saying owners are attempting to put a ceiling on salaries. Manfred emphatically rejected that view Friday, saying the management proposal "absolutely" is not a salary cap.

"A salary cap by definition limits the amount of compensation that will go to players," Manfred said. "In the aggregate, you say something like only 53 percent of revenue will go to players. In our plan, we've said only that sources of salaries will be recycled. Players are likely to earn as much, if not more, in aggregate."

Minimum payrolls might prove to be a way to bridge the gap. According to Manfred, the owners' offer of a $45 million minimum was intended to be an opening offer, not a final one. The union has not explored how high the owners are willing to raise their offer.

"Call me crazy, but you would think you would put a minimum [payroll] proposal out there and the normal process of bargaining would be they would make a proposal to raise it," Manfred said. "That's because it would be more pay for the players."

In negotiations to replace the bargaining agreement that expired after the 2001 season, the sides have agreed on the concept of a worldwide draft, random testing for illegal steroids and an increase in the minimum salary from $200,000 to $300,000.

Details remain to be finalized on the draft and drug testing, as well as a major increase in teams' sharing of local revenues.

According to the Associated Press, players would lose 16.9 percent of their base salaries if they did not return from an Aug. 30 strike.

Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player, would lose nearly $3.6 million of his $21 million salary. A rookie earning the minimum would lose about $34,000.

If there is a strike, it would be the ninth work stoppage since 1972 for MLB. Bush held an ownership interest in the Texas Rangers during a 1990 lockout and the '94-'95 strike. .

"They need to keep working," Bush said. "It's very important for these people to get together. They can make every excuse in the book not to reach an accord; it is bad for them not to reach an accord."